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TO THE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF THE 
LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Fellow-citizens : 

The General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in 1819 and in 
1847, passed resolutions in favor of preserving the national 
domain for free white labor, and against the extension of black 
slavery, because " they were persuaded that to open the fertile 
regions of the West to a servile race, would tend to increase 
their numbers beyond all past example, would open a new and 
steady market for the lawless venders of human flesh, and 
would render all schemes for obliterating this most foul blot 
upon the American character useless and unavailing." 

You are now called upon to pass, with equal unanimity, re- 
solutions against the repeal or alteration of the Missouri Com- 
promise of 1820, which sprung from the discussions of 1819, 
and which has been considered sacred by all men of all par- 
ties, until the attempt made this winter by a Northern man 
with Southern ^property, 1. To evade, and 2d, when unmasked 
to abrogate it. 

Upon this question, there can be no doubt of the sentiments 
of the people of Pennsylvania and of every free State, as the 
Democratic party have found to their cost in the recent elec- 
tions of New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 

It would indeed be strange in the people of a State, which 
abolished slavery in the midst of the revolutionary war, to 



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2 



stand by and see repealed, directly or indirectly, openly or 
covertly, the 8tli section of the Act of the 6th March, 1820, 
for the admission of Missouri, which extended the 6th Article 
of the great Constitutional Ordinance of the 13th July, 1787, 
to all the territory ceded by France to the United States, 
under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36 degrees 
30 minutes of north latitude, and beyond the limits of the 
State of Missouri. 

This Ordinance, recognised as constitutional and binding by 
the Act of the 7th August, 1789, gave birth to every new 
State admitted into the Union, which was formed out of the 
territory included within the original boundaries of the United 
States, with the exception of Vermont and Kentucky, and has 
furnished the model for every territorial government that has 
ever been erected by Congress. From this Ordinance, and its 
immortal 6th Article, have sprung the five great free States of 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with a free 
white population nearly, if not quite, equal at this time to the 
whole free white population of the fifteen slave States, and 
infinitely more powerful, because not cursed with a servile 
race of another color, who, in time of war with an European 
power, or of insurrection, must cripple and destroy the energies 
of their unfortunate masters, and their still more unfortunate 
white brethren who own no slaves, but whose labor is injured 
and degraded by its constant contact with slave labor, and 
whose time is lost in patrolling, to take care of the human pro- 
perty of their rich and aristocratic fellow-citizens. 

The 8th section of the Act of 1820 was passed by over- 
whelming majorities in both houses of Congress, and was sub- 
mitted by Mr. Monroe to his Cabinet, composed of Mr. Adams, 
Mr. Crawford, Judge Thompson, Mr. "Wirt, and Mr. Calhoun, 
and their written opinions were requested upon two questions. 
The first was. Whether Congress has a constitutional right to 
prohibit slavery in a territory? The second was. Whether the 
8th section of the Missouri Bill was consistent with the Consti- 
tution ? The answers to both were unanimously/ k;i the affir- 



mative, in favor of the extension of the area of freedom by 
the only free republic of modern times, and thus settling for 
ever the constitutionality of a power whose exercise was 
coeval with the government. 

The same course was pursued by President Tyler and Mr. 
Calhoun, and by President Polk and Mr. Buchanan, in relation 
to the admission of Texas with the Missouri prohibition, and 
by Mr. Polk and all his cabinet, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Walker, 
Mr. Marcy, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Mason, when he signed the 
Oregon bill, with their complete approval and consent. 

It is therefore absurd and ridiculous for a citizen of a 
free State at this day when small men have succeeded the in- 
tellectual giants of the Revolution, and of the war of 1812, to 
pretend to doubt the power of Congress to pass an Act which 
is essential to the future prosperity of the boundless regions 
of the West which have not yet been marred by the foul stain 
of negro slavery. 

We are all aware that two new discoveries have been made by 
certain patent constitutional statesmen within the last few years, 
as if the meaning of the Constitution when settled by the uni- 
form practice and assent of the legislative, judicial, and execu- 
tive branches of the government, was still the subject of inven- 
tion by ingenious men, who could safely swear that they verily 
believe that they are the first and original inventors .of the im- 
provement in the Constitution, and that they do not know or 
believe that the same was ever before known or used. 

The first, is the new southern theory, that neither Congress 
nor the territorial government can prevent the owner of slaves 
from carrying his slaves into any territory of the United States, 
thereby changing all the territory of the United States, whether 
Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, 
or Nebraska into slave territory. The second is the fence 
theory, which gives the power to the first settlers of a territory, 
whether ten or one hundred, to decide whether slavery shall be 
admitted and occupy for ever from two hundred thousand to a 
million of square miles, to the complete exclusion of those free 



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want of a sufficient white population, is valueless without slave 
labor. 

This small body of capitalists are the masters of the learned 
professions, the clergyman, the doctor, and the lawyer, and 
also of the printer, all of whom depend upon their patronage 
for their success in life. It is the history of the nobles and 
gentry of England — who at this day control the same classes 
by their wealth — enacted over again in another country on 
the western shore of the Atlantic, the titles and land of the 
one forming the true source of their power, for which the slave- 
holder substitutes his ownership of the black and mulatto race. 

In the nearly equal division of parties in the South, such an 
organized body tells with tremendous power upon all elections, 
whether State or national. They control therefore the Gover- 
nors, the Legislatures, and the very Judiciary of the Southern 
States, which have, of late years, reversed the decisions of 
former tribunals, and made them more acceptable to the domi- 
nant class. South Carolina is, perhaps, the strongest example 
of the exercise of this power. Its basis of legislative represen- 
tation is in reality founded upon slave property, and gives the 
preponderance to the few — the slave-owners — over the many. 
The Legislature thus controlled elects the electors of the Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, and never intrusts this power to the 
people. Each Southern Legislature elects its two Senators, 
who are either slave-owners, or hope to be so. 

Instead, therefore, of the senators of a Southern state repre- 
senting a state, or the people of it, they represent a class of 
which they are either parts or dependants ; and, in truth, they 
more nearly resemble the Irish and Scotch elective peers, who 
represent their respective orders in the English House of Lords, 
than a body of republican legislators. This gives the slave- 
owner nearly thirty votes in a full Senate ; for, on all questions 
touching their order and their class and their private fortunes, 
they all, with one or two memorable exceptions, vote for their 
own interest and the extension of slavery. Out of the thirty- 
two members from the free States, you may always find some 

1* 



6 

who come under the description of a Northern man with South- 
ern j^roperty, and some who hope at some future period to pass 
the ordeal of their own body, when appointed to some high or 
low office in the gift of the Executive. 

The consequence is now as it always has been, that upon 
slavery extension, the representatives of the owners of slaves 
vote together. They know no party lines ; Whig and Demo- 
crat caucus together, and resolve what propositions shall be 
offered, what voted down, and when the gag shall be applied 
to force through a measure abhorrent to the great majority of 
the American people. 

The House consists of two hundred and thirty-four mem- 
bers ; ninety of them come from the slave States, seventy of 
these members represent the free population, and the remaining 
twenty represent only slaves. They have no white constituents. 
The free States have one hundred and forty-four representa- 
tives, whose constituents are free men, and of these Pennsyl- 
vania and New York have sixty-eight, within two of what the 
whole South would be entitled to if the white basis were 
adopted. 

In the House, therefore, the free States have a clear majo- 
rity of fifty-four actually, which should be equal to seventy- 
four in the eyes of those who look to the people, the only true 
sovereigns in this country. 

It lies, therefore, with the members of all parties from the 
free States to unite in crushing this nefarious proposition, in 
which, if they acted boldly, promptly, and openly, they would 
have the assistance of southern men who despise the treason 
and the traitors. 

It is certain, that if this passes by northern votes, as it must 
do if at all, the actors in it will never be forgotten, and that 
the news of its passage will only be the signal for agitation 
for its repeal, which may not stop until all compromises are 
levelled in the dust. 

Having thus briefly stated the present aspect of this question, 
it may be proper shortly to consider the effect of slavery and 



slave labor in States and territories in retarding their prospe- 
rity, and excluding free white men and free white labor from 
their borders. 

At the formation of the Constitution, three States of nearly 
equal territorial extent, and centrally situated, started together. 
Virginia, out of sixty-five representatives in Congress, had ten, 
with a white population of 442,115. Pennsylvania had eight 
members, and a white population of 424,099, whilst New York 
had but six members, with a white population of 314,142. 

In 1850, Virginia has thirteen members, which would be 
reduced to ten, on the white basis, and a white population of 
894,800. New York has thirty-three members, and a white 
population of 3,048,325, and Pennsylvania twenty-five mem- 
bers, with a white population of 2,258,160. 

In the Virginia Convention, of 1788, Pennsylvania was 
kindly spoken of as a very respectable State. Since 1790, 
there have been six decennial enumerations of the people. 
Mark the contrast between the slave and the free State in the 
following table of the white population of each State at each 
census. 





Virginia. 


Pennsylvania . 


1800, . 


514,280 


586,094 


1810, . 


551,319 


786,804 


1820, . 


603,087 


. 1,017,094 


1830, . 


694,300 


. 1,309,900 


1840, . 


740,858 


. 1,676,115 


1850, . 


894,800 


. 2,258,160 


hat is the ca 


use of this lamentabl 


e result? Nothing; but 



slavery, which binds free Western Virginia to the car of slave- 
owning Eastern Virginia, which deprives her of her fair repre- 
sentation in their Legislature, elects owners of slaves to the 
Senate, and returns the same class to the House. 

The trans-Allegheny and Valley Districts in Virginia, com- 
prising 68 counties and a free population of 502,564, with but 



63,234 slaves, are made entirely subservient to the policy of 
Eastern Virginia, comprising 72 counties, a free population of 
only 392,236, Avitli 412,379 slaves ; and all change of this in- 
equality is prohibited by the last constitution until 1865, when 
four bases are to be submitted to the people, only one of which 
proposes to give the free white population its proper represen- 
tation in the popular branch. The fact is, that the Virginia 
Constitution, like Lord John Russell's Reform Bills, is in- 
tended to keep for the aristocracy its power as long as it can 
be done with safety, by dealing out a small grain of justice at 
distant intervals. 

The truth is, that "Western Virginia, as well as Maryland 
and Delaware, should have been free States long ago, but the 
aristocracy of slavery have always put their veto upon this act 
of justice. 

In Pennsylvania, we have a city of half a million in the 
east, and another in the west of 100,000, with what would be 
large cities in the South scattered over the interior. 

Norfolk, the great seaport of Virginia, has but 9,075 white 
inhabitants; Richmond, its capital, only 15,274; Charleston, 
the present seat of the Southern Commercial Convention, only 
20,012 ; and Savannah only 8,395. 

Are there any other proofs wanting of the ruinous effect of 
slavery upon the white population of the slave States ? If 
A^irginia had been a free State, with her intelligent population, 
— her men of ability and heroism, — her immense agricultural, 
mineral, manufacturing, and commercial resources, and her 
rivers running into her very heart, she might have distanced 
Pennsylvania in the race of improvement, and perhaps even 
New York. 

She is no longer the mother of men. Her sons desert her 
for other lands favored by freedom and the wages of freedom ; 
and her station in the Senate House is retained only by old 
recollections of the days of her intellectual giants, and not 
by any inherent power of her present generation of statesmen 
and orators. 



In the slave States nearest to us there is a constant refusal 
of a full representation of the Avhite population. In Delaware, 
each county has 3 senators and 7 representatives, although 
New Castle County has nearly one-half of the population of 
the whole State. In Maryland, each county, though varying 
from 9,618 souls to 41,589, has one senator; and Baltimore 
city and county, comprising nearly one-half of the whole popu- 
lation of the State, have only two senators out of 21, and 16 
delegates out of a house of 72. 

The white freeman, therefore, is not on an equality as to 
representation in the legislative hall with the slave-owner, who 
controls his destiny, and who may elect a senator of the United 
States in the face of a large popular majority in the State. 

It is not simply in his character of an elector, that the rights 
of a white freeman are taken away in a slave State, but 'he 
is forced to contribute his time and his labor to take care of 
the property of his rich neighbor, which in a free State takes 
care of itself. 

In the Southern States there are upwards of three millions 
of people without the divine institution of marriage, — who have 
neither wives, husbands, nor children, except as the foal follows 
the mare. All, from infancy to old age, without distinction of 
sex, or even of color (for the shades are from black to white), 
are liable to whipping — cruel and immoderate whipping — in 
private by their masters, provided it does not affect life or 
limb. The infant may be separated from its mother and be 
sold into distant slavery at the will or caprice of the master, 
or by the iron hand of the law. Three millions of souls, in a 
Christian land, whether slave or free, are forbidden to learn to 
read or to write, and of course forbidden to read the Bible ; 
whilst free white women are punished with fine and imprison- 
ment for doing what, on the coast of Africa, would be considered 
the chief end of missionary labor. The vices and degradation of 
slavery need no enumeration ; and their effect on the white 
race has been graphically portrayed by Colonel Mason, of Vir- 
ginia. '"'■ Christians,'' says a Southern judge, "Ziow can loe 



10 

justify it that a slave is nut to be permitted to read the 
BihUr 

In the South, no large cities call for free white mechanical 
or other labor, and the interior is virtually closed to all free 
white labor by the wealthy slave-owner, who employs only his 
white overseers and his black slaves, Avhethcr in the labor of 
the field, the house, the shop, and even in the manufactory.* 

In a Southern State, all free white male {and in some places 
female) inhabitants are liable to do patrol duty, that is, to watch 
over the slaves of their rich neighbors, and they are called out 
at least once a fortnight, and may correct with stripes, all 
slaves infringing the slave regulations in the slightest par- 
ticular. 

Does any free white man with his family and their labor 
think of going to South Carolina, the headquarters of Southern 
slavery ? If this be so, why should such a system be tolerated 
for a moment in territory now free, and thus exclude the native 
Pennsylvanian or the hardy emigrant from Europe from settling 
in the far "West. The introduction of slavery is the permanent 
exclusion of the white freeman and white free labor. 

But it is said this entering wedge to repeal, leaves it to the 
people of the territory — that is, to the few slaveholders who are 
on its borders prepared tu take possession with their slaves and 
slave labor. One single slave makes it slave territory for 
ever. 

Is the Legislature of Pennsylvania to be thus gulled, and 
will any Democratic member dare to repeat such a flimsy ex- 
cuse to his indignant constituents ? 

In fine, these territories are now free, and they must be kept 
so, and they must be saved by white freemen and white free 
labor from that day of reckoning which must come sooner or 
later to the slave-owners, for it is written by the hand of destiny, 

* Slaves as Steamboat Hands. — The steamboat officers on the lower 
Ohio, Mississippi, and Southern rivers generally, are endeavoring to intro- 
duce slaves as deck hands, firemen, kc, on steamboats, in order to counteract 
the efforts of free laborers to procure higher rates of wages. 



11 

that they must either prepare for emancipation or servile in- 
surrection. 

We are on the eve of an election bj the people, and if the 
Democratic party is found false to freedom, or hesitating in its 
action, it must share the fate of its friends in other free 
States. 

Those who believe this proposition for repeal to be a breach 
of faith, arc waiting for legislative action. If it does not come, 
there only remains a last remedy, a call for a convention on the 
first of June next. 

A DEMOCRAT. 



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